rogat - sustp - fa - fresh

Michelle Rogat
Sustainability Problems
Film Annotations
04/14/2014

Fresh

1. Title, director and release year?

• Fresh, directed by Ana Sofia Joanes, released in 2009

2. What is the central argument or narrative of the film?

• The central argument of this film is that aside from the mass corporate food production there is in our agricultural industry, there are alternative, healthier, and more sustainable ways of producing food.

3. How is the argument or narrative made and sustained? How much scientific information is provided, for example?

• It's mainly farmers throughout the film that give their reasoning for why they have decided to produce in alternative ways, which is nice because it not only presents the problems to the audience, but shows them that there is something else that can be done, there are solutions. Aside from farmers there is also the well known food and growing critic Michael Pollan and an economist as well. It's nice to have other experts to lend weight to the farmers' alternative practices and to further explain the kinks in the agro-food system.

Does the film have emotional appeal?

• The film definitely has an emotional appeal because they show some of the main practices of the agro-food industry that include animals being crammed into tight spaces surrounded by their own feces, cows getting sick with mad cow, and chicken with their beaks and claws removed. These images are just so wrong and unnatural that they shock and disturb us.
• There's also an emotional when you start thinking of how many people in the world go hungry, even within our own country, because of the system that has developed and how much food is really wasted.

4. What sustainability problems does the film draw out?
Political? Legal?

• The pig industry requires farmers to go through their specific system, which feeds back in to the profits of the companies that make up that pig industry, and it doesn't allow for much competition within the industry.

Economic?

• Local organic foods cost more, but they are worth more too. The industrial process diminishes the nutrients in the fresh produce, and research shows it's by 40%. The more you process food, the less nutritious it is. Cheap food is an illusion.
• Michael Pollan discusses food justice, and how some people can't afford healthy food or don't have access to it because of how our agricultural industry is set up, with the subsidizing of soy and corn going into high fructose syrups, it makes it so that unhealthy sugary processed foods are cheaper.
• The farmer made a point of how industry cuts off chickens' beaks and claws while they're at the farm, because they aren't thinking of how the chickens need it for cleaning out their own land and scratching a itch from a bug, but are focused on maximum production.

Technological?

• The only monocultures are able to thrive is because of the antibiotics and pesticides created to act as the system's immunity, but then there's resistance issues that cause stronger strains of viruses and disease, that push the development of more medicines and pesticides, it's a vicious cycle. - Michael Pollan
• Feeding antibiotics to increase growth rate kills off the weak strain, but then the strong strain survives, and so an antibody resistant monster strain is created.
• "If you want to feed the world? Don't go industrial, all of those inputs and machinery make it unsustainable." "Industrial agriculture has caused us to lose 90% of our biodiversity."

Media and Informational?
Organizational?

• Professor John Ikerd, an agricultural economist, described the system of mass production and how it doesn't work when applied to food and agriculture.
• Growing Power - and organization focused on how to change the existing food system so that everyone has access to healthy food. They focuses on reducing or making use of food waste and making healthy soil again, they take form wholesalers and only scratch the surface. Karen Parker, the co-director of Growing Power, shared her experience of converting from eating processed foods to produce and free range meat.
• It's important to think of the major players involved that shape the issue, such as who sells the seeds, the government with subsidies, the organization that provides certification, etc. because this is a leverage point in the system, involves economy, politics, and more.

Educational?

• The farmer who was talking of his experience with running a CAFO said that once he realized what was going on with the cycle of antibiotics and stronger strains of virus, his conscience kicked in and he quit cold turkey, deciding to kill off his entire stock and started somewhere new with different practices. This shows that sometimes even the farmers that are involved in the system don't understand the consequences of what they are doing and there are alternative options for them. If the farmers didn't know, imagine how much of the general population doesn't know how our food is produced.

Behavioral?Cultural?

• "Part of our responsibility of stewards of the Earth is to respect the design of nature."

Ecological?

• Monocultures are a very dangerous thing, nature doesn't have it,the only reason you can grow the exact same species of animal or plant in a large amount in a small space is with antibiotics and pesticides. - Michael Pollan
• Large concentrated farming become animal cities and they present a huge sanitation problem. The manure is full of chemicals, like hormones and pesticides, so you can't use that manure in the nutrient cycle because it's now a pollutant and isn't safe. This further creates a demand for fossil fuel based fertilizer because the manure can't be used. Farms are also an enormous source of pollution from water run-off.
• Our agricultural system feeds meat to cows, which are herbivores, they aren't meant to eat meat, and it causes diseases such as mad cow disease, avian flu, and more. Cattle shouldn't even eat grain, they are evolved to eat grass. This presents the issue of producing food that's possibly too risky to eat.
• The conventional farmer was talking about how his father first got the farming property and was consulting with gov't and private agric. experts on how to manage the land most profitably, and all of them said the same thing, to grow corn, have a silo, graze the forest. But his father knew more about ecology than to do that, and so they looked to nature as a template. The practice rotating grazing, where they more the cows to another field, then the chickens go into the field and pick the bugs and worms. Said that what he was really farming was grass, if he took care of the grass, the grass took care of the cows. His model of herbivore grass based feed for cattle is a solution to most of the problems in the agriculture of cattle.

5. What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? Why?

• The most compelling parts of this documentary was seeing the relief and happiness of the farmers when they get to explain their new methods of producing food as opposed to the corporate industrial farming methods that look like it sickens them to talk about. The look of relief and a clear conscious, that can't be faked and I bet a lot of farmers watching are going to want to get to that point themselves.

6. What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by? Why?

• The documentary did little to represent the corporate and industrial farming side, besides including farmers that used to grow in their system. Including the other side always strengthens and argument, and gives insight to the audience as to the culture and reasoning for their growing methods, and I'm guessing would probably show that it comes down to greed and just not getting it, just not understanding the failures of their system because they look at it only from a business perspective, and one that couldn't be taking everything into account.

7. What audiences does the film best address? Why?

• This film best addresses farmers, people that grow their own food, people involved in the agro-food industry, and just everyone who takes an interest into their own health and the food that they eat. This topic touches many people, because everyone eats, and everyone is personally affected by this if they realize it or not.

8. What could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental educational value?

• It would have been interesting to see if there are resources or an almost separate system that exists to help farmers leave the corporate industrial model behind, like organizations that are there to provide the education and a helping hand. I know that there exists like a machine swapping system where you can rent most of what you need from a shard group of tools and machines. It could be helpful for farmers watching so they have a sense of who they could turn to for help, and it'd be nice to see an alternative system develop so alternative methods can reach more people.

9. What kinds of action and points of intervention are suggested by the film? If the film itself does not suggest corrective action, describe actions that you can imagine being effective.

• From the failures the film points out, it seems that there are many things that could be changed for the better. The government could stop subsidizing soy and corn, but instead put that money into helping small local farmers. There should be stricter regulations on the containment of animals and how packed they are allowed to be held in living spaces because this is just breeding disease and demands that medicine be used.
• The practice of rotated grazing, where they more the cows to another field, then the chickens go into the field and pick the bugs and worms. Said that what he was really farming was grass, if he took care of the grass, the grass took care of the cows. This model of herbivore grass based feed for cattle is a solution to most of the problems in the agriculture of cattle.

10. What additional information has this film compelled you to seek out? (Provide at least two supporting references.)

• From watching Food Inc and this film I have been more conscientious of the food I buy and what I eat. I've also looked into some of Michael Pollan's writing such as The Omnivore's Dilemma.